Looking Out
by Weatherlibby
Summary: The Lone Wanderer couldn't have completed his journey alone. "The wasteland isn't particularly overrunning with people who like to help others."
1. Enclave Bots

**AN: Hi, everyone! This is my first Fallout story. I don't own Fallout or Bethesda, and I'm not making money off of this. This follows the lives of two Wastelanders and how they play out in the Lone Wanderer's adventure.**

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><p>The tunnel was dark, damp, and smelled of dead animals. The girl kept close to the wall, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention. Still not used to the smell of decay, she crinkled her nose is disgust as she snuck past the corpse of a giant rodent. She came to a door dimly illuminated by an old light bulb, flickering on and off every so often. Behind the door was a small supply closet, with a few boxes stashed on a shelf. The girl opened one of the boxes, as quietly as she could manage, and drew out a small handgun.<p>

"Huh." She said to herself, putting ammo for her small gun in the small backpack around her shoulders. She walked out of the supply closet, wandering the tunnels, hopelessly lost. Apparently the tunnels were empty; she wasted more than enough ammo shooting at an invisible enemy, but nothing came to investigate. She sat down on one of the walkways, putting her feet in the rails a metro ran on several years before, and started to cry. The girl cried for a while, then wiped her tears with the back of her hand, stood up, and kept walking. That way, she figured, she would come to an exit of some kind. After coming to the conclusion that there was no one in the tunnels, she began to half-sing/half-hum a song she had heard several times on the radio. The girl kicked a tin can along, trying to keep despair out of her mind.

"I'm na na na na na na in August, na na na flag on the Fourth of July…" She froze as a large clanking came from a tunnel in front of her. It could have easily been a stray barrel, the trash cans the homeless of old would light for warmth, but it was probably something waiting to kill her. Her song ceased, and she tiptoed quietly to the walkway on the other side of the tunnel, out of sight of the possible assassin. There she waited for the something to come and get her, only a few rounds left in her gun before she had to reload. Her plan was to fire blindly at the thing until she turned up empty. Then…she'd figure out something else. The girl waited for a good thirty minutes, before convincing herself the creature had gone into hiding. So she kept walking, but no more singing. She walked, and walked, and walked for what seemed like an eternity. The girl took a pre-war candy bar out of her backpack, and carefully took off the wrapping. It wasn't the most delicious thing she had ever eaten, nothing was if it was over two hundred years old, but it was certainly not the worst. After her makeshift 'supper' she kept walking. Turning a corner, she came to a fork in the metro tunnels, made a split decision to go left, and continued on. She began to think, instead of dying, she would have to wander the metros for the rest of time. She only wanted to get out, get back to her town, back to her family and friends. She dedicated her time to this one tunnel; hours went by without her taking a break. She was still hungry, rather thirsty, and her legs were sore. After three hours on that tunnel, she saw something in the distance. The girl strained her eyes to see, and the faint illusion of something she once knew, light, was indeed ahead. She started running; doing anything she could to get closer to her savior. When she arrived at the light, it turned out to only be another maintenance closet. She cried out, slamming her fist against the side on the wall, and then cried out again, because the walls were made out of concrete. She opened the door, and janitorial supplies sat sadly alone inside. Sniffling, she took a single sensor module, probably from one of the old subways, and stuck it in her bag. She sat down in the closet, and started to cry again. She didn't know if she would ever stop crying. Somewhere a door opened, and she heard footsteps, but she didn't care. She kept crying and wallowing in self-pity. The footsteps grew closer, and she attempted to stop crying, but it didn't work very well.

"Who…who's there?" She said in a shaky voice. "If you're a raider, I got nothing of value. Except some water, but I'll give it to you!" Still the footsteps grew nearer. For a second she was worried that it was an animal, a mole rat, or worse, but that thought was dismissed as she heard the bottom of boots hitting the pavement in an attempt to be quiet. "You might as well come here. I can hear you and I know you're there." She said, a little bit delusional. Perhaps she was imagining the footsteps. She stood up, and went to investigate the noises. As soon as she stepped foot out of the closet, a gun clicked, and was pointed at her. While any normal person would be concerned, the girl just smiled, happy to not be alone in such a desperate time.

"Hello." She said, happiness in her voice, but it was evident she had been crying.

"Hello…" The person holding the gun said uncertainly. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same." There was an awkward silence for a while, before she finally spoke, wiping her tears off her face. "I got lost. I've been in here since yesterday. I thought I could find my way out, but I couldn't. So I just kept walking. Do you know the way out?" The figure, a young man, nodded. "Oh my god, you're not kidding, are you? I'm not going to die! Thank you so much!" She would have hugged him, she was so happy, but since he had a gun pointed in her direction, so she didn't think that was the best thing to do in her situation.

"Who said I was going to show you the way?"

"Well, I assumed, since I've been wandering around for so long…I'll give you something, whatever you want! Really. I just, need to get out of here." She eyed his gun. "I'm not dangerous." She added quietly. He put the gun down.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

"Who are you?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Can you show me the way out?"

"Maybe. But, I have a condition."

"What?"

"Your name. And, if you want, you can tell me about yourself. These tunnels are probably empty, you survived this far, and I don't care much for silences."

"Ok." He turned and started walking, she followed him, and soon they were walking side by side, she on the walkway, he was trying to balance on the rails. "My, um, name…is Claire. I'm twenty-one. My full name is Dorothy Clara, but I don't care much for Dorothy."

"You don't have a last name?"

"Anders."

"Where do you come from?"

"Well…I've travelled."

"Where did you grow up?"

"Rivet City. Nice little settlement."

"Been there."

"Hmm. Yeah, I lived there until I was twenty. I tried to leave before, when I was sixteen, but then I saw one of the Muties, over by the old Jefferson Memorial. Convinced me to stay for a LONG time. But then, I figured I could just sneak by, so I learned how to swim and just swam away from Rivet City and the Muties. It took a really long time. When I say a really long time, I mean a REALLY long time. I nearly died getting there. Some lady found me just floating out there, got in her leaky boat and fished me out. I was damn lucky she wasn't a cannibal. So, afterwards, I headed up to a place called Megaton. Stayed there for a few weeks. Their water was crap. I got a tip from some creep there about a place called Tenpenny Towers. So, I headed there. That trip was hell too. Nearly got shot several times, and if I hadn't followed some 'Enclave' bots or whatever I'd just be a rotting corpse. It's cool, a wild robot that shoots things that are trying to kill me. Its transmissions were annoying, though. Anyways, when I finally got to the Towers, a good month after I left Megaton, I was let in the gate, but I have no idea why. I guess it was because how strongly I reacted to this…zombie-thing-"

"Ghoul?"

"Yeah, that. I'd never seen one before. So, I was scared. I started banging at the gate. The guards inside laughed. It was traumatic. So, I sat on the steps, and cried for a bit, until one guy finally took pity on me. He cussed out the ghoul, and then opened the gate for me. I paid this one guy, Gustavo, about 300 caps, the most that was left on me, and got him to allow me to stay in a vacant room. I stayed there for about six months, and then decided the whole adventurer thing wasn't for me. I prepared to go back to Rivet City again, get married, whatnot, and decided the metros would be a good idea. Oh boy, I was wrong. So, I've been in here for about two days, and that's where you come in. Wow."

"What?"

"I just told you mostly everything about my history, and I've just met you. You must have some kind of 'lady' charm." He laughed. "What about you? What's your history?"

"That's not a part of our deal."

"But-"

"How are you going to get back to Rivet City?" he asked, changing the subject.

"By walking, I don't know. Now that you pointed out, I don't think I can. One of those bear-things will get me."

"You don't know anyone that could help you out?"

"The wasteland isn't particularly overrunning with people who like to help others." Claire was silent after this realization.

"Well, if you want to know, I'm Jimmy." She had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing.

"That's a real badass name, Jimmy."

"All right, Dorothy."

"Touché."


	2. Dead Mole Rats

-Chapter 2-

After a very long conversation, several additional hours of walking, and lots of complaining from Claire, the pair finally reached a maintenance closet stationed next to a locked gate to the outside.

"Now," said Jimmy, "If I remembered correctly, we go out this door, and the exit should be right…" Jimmy opened the door. A skeleton sat perched in a mop bucket. Claire jumped.

"It's just a dead guy." Overeager to get outside and away from the dead man in the bucket, Claire opened a door at the end of the closet. After nearly three days underground, the sudden sunlight nearly blinded her. While her eyes adjusted to the ever-welcome light, she saw something she really didn't want to see. She drew out the handgun and fired blindly at the potential assassin, her head thrown in the opposite direction, shielding her from the noise. Jimmy's eyes opened wide, as he took the gun out of her hand.

"What the hell was that?"

"Shoot it!" She gestured to a heap of rotting mole rat lying dead next to the gate.

"It's dead! Why would you waste bullets on something that's already dead? Shit!" Jimmy cried out in frustration.

"I have more ammo. It could've easily been asleep. How was I supposed to know it was dead?"

"These things are stupid! You could've checked."

"By how? Walking up to the damn thing and asking it: 'Hey, buddy, are you asleep or just dead?' Yeah, great idea. If you haven't noticed, I'm not very good at being sneaky."

"Hmph."

"Fine. Ok. Next time there's a mole rat, _you _can ask it about its life. And…you can shoot it too. Many times. To make sure that it's dead."

Jimmy sighed, and handed her the gun back while slinging a hunting rifle off of his back. A tall tower gleamed in the near distance, barricades surrounding the lower levels, keeping the unwanted out. It had a pre-war aura to it, and certain stability. It had survived a nuclear war. Try and bring it down. It dares you. It went up several levels, so many that Jimmy felt bad for the poor suckers on the top floor who had to use the stairs. He squinted to the balcony. A shot rang out, and Jimmy hit the ground instinctively. The bullet didn't hit them; in fact it hadn't landed even in their general direction. They weren't being shot at. A figure with a rifle was prancing, yes, prancing around the top, shooting every which way.

"There's-"

"Tenpenny," Claire gazed in mock awe. "I haven't seen that building in four days. It has been way too long." Jimmy glanced back at the mole rat.

"Serves him right."

"What?"

"Mole rats are disgusting. Well," he said, pronouncing it more like _Whelp,_ "We should probably get moving. It looks like morning, so can travel until around five-thirtyish."

"_We _should get moving?"

"Yeah, I'm going to…what's the word…escort you back to Rivet City."

"Oh." Claire looked at her boots in embarrassment. "Well, thanks."

"No problem. As long as we don't get cocky, lay low, and shoot first, we have a chance at surviving."

"A chance?"

"Yeah. Just…how about you don't shoot too much. I have a feeling someone growing up in Rivet City wouldn't have as much hands-on experience as a good ol' Wastelander. Plus, I have a feeling that you're terrible at shooting." Claire scoffed.

"What makes you say that?" Jimmy looked back at the mole rat.

"You wasted six rounds on the rat. You were standing roughly seven, maybe eight, feet away from it. No bullet wounds of any kind. Better yet, let me do the shooting. There are far worse things than dead mole rats in the dark places of the Wasteland. This time, though, there won't be any Enclave bots to save our sorry asses. We're on our own."

"Right. So, do you know the way to Rivet City?" Jimmy sighed, and then laughed.

"Yeah, I know a way. It's pretty long, but it's the least dangerous. If everything goes according the plan, we'll be there in about two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Jimmy nodded, and looked up at the sky.

"Yeah. Two weeks." Claire put her hands in her pockets, and looked at the ground.

"Well, I guess we better be going." Jimmy took his gun off of his back, and started to walk. It would be a long way, and the chances of the two of them both surviving to Rivet City were not very bright.

One would never think it, but the Wasteland was hot. Not like, 'Oh, I think I'm going to refresh myself with a refreshing Nuka Cola while riding on a Giddyup Buttercup' hot, but more of an 'Oh god, if I don't find water I shall surely die.' Being the good ole Wastelander Jimmy was, he toughed through it and didn't complain.

"It's hot." Claire remarked.

"I would have never guessed."

"Ugh. It's too hot." She rolled her sleeves up to her elbows. "Can we stop?" Jimmy shook his head. "Then can you at least, say something? You said you don't like silences, I don't like them either." Jimmy remained silent. "Well, then I won't talk too." Claire crossed her arms. A few minutes passed, Jimmy scoping out the valley ahead of them, Claire following him, pouting in promised silence. Suddenly, he raised his hand as a warning to be still. He aimed his hunting rifle at something below them. All was silent.

"It is way too hot!" Claire yelled in anger.

Then she heard what he had been aiming at. She froze when she heard the squeal of the mole rat bounding up the hillside. Jimmy cursed, then loaded his gun and aimed. Claire took off running. "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!" She ran about twenty feet behind Jimmy, and watched as the mole rat jumped almost of top of him, before three shots rang out and it fell, dead. After throwing the corpse off of him, Jimmy turned angrily to Claire.

"Could you just shut up while I'm trying to kill things?" She looked at the ground guiltily. "I know damn well that it's hot, alright? There is nothing I can do about it. And," he pointed his gun to the mole rat, "I know there are mole rats. But for the love of GOD, will you please stop making such a big deal out of everything?"

"Sorry." She muttered.

"Alright." Jimmy wiped his forehead with his sleeve, regaining his cool. He slung his gun onto his back, and walked back to the mole rat. Claire sat down on the beaten ground while he took out a knife and started cutting the mole rat apart. She couldn't watch without throwing up, so she simply sat in the opposite direction.

"Is this your job?" She asked after a few moments of silence, with the occasional squish of the dead mole rat.

"What?"

"Are you a hunter?" Jimmy looked up for a moment, then back to the mole rat.

"Yeah, I guess. A scavenger too. Occasional trader. Travelled with the caravans for a few years as protection."

"Is that when you went to Rivet City?" He wrapped the mole rat meat in a small bag, and stuffed it in his backpack.

"Yeah."

"You're interesting." Jimmy shrugged.

"I survive. Let's go." They made their way carefully down the steep hill the rat had easily bounded up, Claire occasionally slipping. They walked across a valley, luckily without any animal intervention. The rest of day one went along fairly smoothly; the other wildlife they crossed left them alone. Except for a herd of two Brahmin, diseased and crazy, that tried to run them through with their brahma horns. When the sun started setting, Jimmy decided to set up camp. He worked on getting a fire going, while Claire busied herself setting up little sleeping mats beside it. Once the campfire was roaring, he took the mole rat meat out of his backpack and stabbed it onto a stick. He gave one to Claire, and they roasted them over the fire.

"Where are you from?" Claire mumbled, with her mouth full of mole rat. Jimmy furrowed his eyebrows, and started drawing circles in the dirt with a charred stick.

"Well, I was born near some Regulator's headquarters. They let my ma stay there for a while, and we stayed there a few months, until it was attacked by some raider-Enclave team. We both survived that, and my ma decided she didn't want us there anymore. She hired one of her Regulator buddies as protection, and we moved to Big Town, where my ma was from. I grew up there, until I was ten, and one night, muties came and dragged Ma and a bunch of other people off. Damn, the guard there nearly had to shoot me to get me to stop screaming and trying to kill them. All I had was a machete. Must have been adrenaline, a ten-year-old kid with a knife going after a super mutant with a minigun." Claire wrapped up the rest of her food and got out a Fancy-Lad's Snack Cake. She broke it in half and offered one to Jimmy, who gladly accepted.

"Did you have a dad?"

"Did I have a dad? Probably. Never knew him though. It was always 'Me and Ma.' I never really thought about why I never had a dad when I was a kid, because usually no one else had either of their parents. I don't like to think Ma was into prostitution, but it's possible."

"Where did you go after Big Town?"

"Traders. I just started walking one day, -Terrible idea, never do it-, and I found this one Caravan. They offered food and stuff if I didn't kill them in their sleep or anything. I stayed with them until I was seventeen. Then I headed to Megaton, the city Ma had always talked about. I got into some terrible things there. Started drinking, one of the Stahl guys hooked me up with drugs, I was just a wreck. When I got into a fight with one of the ex-raiders, that bastard Jericho, Simms finally booted me out. Said it was for 'my own good.' After that, I just started wandering, trying to find work with whoever needs it." Claire lay down on her sleeping mat, yawning.

"You can't make a lot of money doing that, can you?"

"You'd be surprised. Been doing it for five years."

"Night, Jimmy."

"Goodnight."

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><p><strong>Sorry for not updating sooner, I was stuck in a wifi-less place for a week, but I wrote a lot! Thanks to my reviewer, UnStellar, and if you have any ideas, feel free to leave a review or pm me! Thanks! <strong>


	3. Mirelurks and Nuka Cola

A hand shook Claire's shoulder. Without opening her eyes, she could tell that it was still dark outside.

"Let me sleep." She mumbled, throwing a blanket over her head.

"No." The stern voice of her companion, Jimmy, refused.

"What time is it?" There was a brief silence in which Claire could only assume Jimmy was looking at his watch.

"Four-thirty."

"What? I don't get up that early. We didn't get to sleep until late." Jimmy sighed, and pulled the sheet off of her face.

"Do you want to get shot by raiders? We have to go by a camp full of them. So, either we can sneak past it under cover of darkness, or we can risk the mercy of her trigger fingers. Your pick." Claire sat up, and she had a very unpleasant look on her face. As she picked up her bedroll, she replied,

"Darkness," almost reluctantly. "Won't it take a while to pack up everything? We _did _camp out."

"I already packed up. We didn't have a lot of stuff anyways. Just what we were each carrying when I found you." Claire mumbled some obscenities under her breath as she grabbed her bag and started walking. "Hey!" Jimmy yelled after her. "Wait! No doubt you'll get killed if you take fifteen steps away from me." Claire stopped with her back turned to him. "You need to calm down. I know I've learned my lesson."

"And what is that?"

"To not wake you up at four." Claire shrugged, her anger apparently gone.

"Never been a good sleeper."

"Yeah. I'm sure half the wasteland has noticed." Jimmy looked up to the sky, then squinted at his watch. "Come on, we need to go."

Claire and Jimmy virtually tip-toed past the raider camp, as the sun began to rise. The normally loud and violent place was unusually still and quiet, with only the occasional curse and a little bit of gunfire. The raider on watch had fallen asleep, making the passage a bit easier for the two. They walked up an old road, cars two hundred years old still sitting where they had been abandoned during the Great War. While Jimmy simply walked, not minding the uneven terrain, Claire was hopping from one clump of asphalt to the next. He sat down beside the fence that separated them from the raiders, and signaled for Claire to do the same.

"Listen." He barely whispered. She pressed her ear up to the fence.

"Damn, man, you are such a son of a b-"

"Shut up! You're the one who woke me up, you damn idiot. You're lucky I didn't put one of these bullets in you."

"Why don't 'cha?"

"Fine!" There were five gunshots, and then laughter from one of the raiders. Soon, another voice joined in.

"What the hell did you do that for?"

"He woke me up."

"And you shot him?"

"Told me to."

"Why are you up?" A fourth, older voiced yelled. "It is five in the damn morning!" Jimmy snickered. Claire looked at him, confused and horrified.

"What's so funny?" she mouthed.

"Looks like you're not the only one who can't wake up." Claire gently hit his arm.

"Shut up. Let's leave." Jimmy nodded, and they snuck safely out of the raiders' range of hearing. When the group of murderous misfits was far behind them, Jimmy finally burst into laughter, and fell to the ground, clutching his sides as if he was going to explode. "Never gets old!"

"You mean the raiders?" Jimmy nodded. "The ones that rape children and eat people?"

"They're terrible, and kind of a joke. Definitely funny, though. You didn't think that was funny?" Claire stared back at him, appalled. "Oh. Oh, I get it. You're not used to people dying. Rivet City and all. Well, there's bound to be a lot of more dead people on our journey, so either toughen up and get used to it, or learn to navigate with your eyes closed."

"What if I don't want to do either?"

"Then…you are put in a very uncomfortable situation. Death is a natural part of life, Claire. It's like a circle, you see." He made a circular motion with his hands. "Life is one part, death is the other, and they both go around and around. Very natural."

"Except when you die of unnatural causes. Like getting shot five times. Or getting impaled by a…a mole rat. And getting eaten by super mutants. Are those natural?" Claire replied. Jimmy shook his head as a solemn look crossed his face.

"They didn't used to be. But now they are. We can't do anything about it. It's just life." Claire realized that she had struck a chord with Jimmy about his mother, with her comment on the super mutants.

"Sorry." Jimmy stayed silent. "I didn't mean-"

"No. It's alright."

"No, it's not. I'm sorry." Claire stuck her hands in her pockets and stared at the ground sheepishly. Jimmy quickened his pace, and they half-ran-half-walked to an old crumbling building. Jimmy tried to open the rusty doors while Claire sat by a pile of weeds, poking the ground with a stick. The doors were giving him quite an amount of trouble. They refused to open, and Jimmy didn't know if they were locked or rusted shut. If they were locked, he could just shoot the door, but the raiders weren't that far off that they couldn't hear a gunshot. After a few minutes of pulling at the handles, and very heavy cursing, Claire came over to try to help.

She took hold of the handle, pulled as hard as she could, and it came off in her hands. "Shit." She mumbled, and half-heartedly attempted to put it back on the door. "Heh….sorry." Jimmy just stared at the door.

"Maybe there's a back entrance?"

"That puts us at risk."

"This is a Nuka Cola plant, right?" Jimmy nodded. "Break a window, and give me a boost, I'll try to pull you up, or make my way down and open the door for you." He shut his eyes, imagining her plan. It took him a good five minutes, and when he finally opened his eyes, his agreed.

"That's actually a good plan." He found a rock on the ground and broke a second-floor window, the only one that didn't have bars on it. He helped Claire up, and when she held her hand out to help him up, she couldn't reach. "That's fine," Jimmy announced. "Get to the door and unlock it, or shoot it. Raiders wouldn't hear you from inside." Claire nodded, and pretended to salute him.

"I'll see you on the other side, soldier." She said in a deep voice. Jimmy rolled his eyes. He waited outside for a few minutes, keeping watch for animals or Raiders. After ten minutes, he heard some crashing from inside, but shook it off as Claire being clumsy and knocking something over. He walked to the end of the building's side, and saw a scavenger walking down the road.

"Hey!" Jimmy yelled to the scavenger.

"Hey, man, you lookin' to buy something?" She yelled back.

"You got ammo?"

"Yeah, I got ammo." Jimmy handed her twenty caps, and she gave him one box of shotgun shells. "What are you doing hanging around the Nuka Plant?"

"Exactly what I guess you came to do. Scavenging. Good luck though, the door's shut." They walked back to the door for the scavenger to investigate. She took a machete off of her belt and slid it between the doors, dragging it down until it snagged in the middle.

"It's just locked." She declared, and took out a pistol to shoot the lock.

"No!" Jimmy moved her gun away from the door. "There's a camp full of raiders not that far off. We walked past there this morning. They would be able to hear a gunshot. The girl I'm travelling with is inside." Speak of the devil, the two of them heard faint running steps on hard concrete, and then yelling. A muffled,

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" and then a gunshot rang out, and the door swung open. Claire ran out, with a bloody cut on her forehead, and two giant mirelurks chasing after her. "Shoot them!" She yelled to Jimmy. She turned around and ducked as one took a swung at her, then returned with three bullets to its face. The scavenger took the other one down, while Jimmy stood, dumbfounded, as Claire regained her breath. "There…" she panted, "there are a lot of mirelurks in there." As if on cue, another mirelurk ran out, this one even bigger than the other two. Jimmy had composed himself by then, and went in to killer-man mode, as Claire would come to pen it. After the dust had settled, there were five dead mirelurks lying on the ground, and one dead scavenger. "Who's that?" Claire looked at the scavenger, lifting her arm up to see if she was dead. It fell to the ground limply.

"A scavenger. Sold me some ammo." He walked over to her body, and took her pouch of bottle caps off of her belt. Claire looked at him, appalled for the second time that day. "It's not like she's going to need them," he stated innocently. He then proceeded to take her backpack, which held lots of food and some stimpacks. Jimmy also took her 9mm and tucked it behind his belt. "Are there any more mirelurks in there?" He asked Claire, who was sitting on the ground, legs tucked closely to her body.

"Yeah." she replied, "A whole nest. They didn't come after me though." Jimmy looked at the cut on her forehead.

"We're going to need to get you to a medic for that. No problem. I know where they put one supply of Nuka Cola. And, Megaton's just two days away. Actually, everything's going exactly as planned. We probably won't die."

"That's good." Claire replied, lightly touching the cut on her head. "This thing hurts like crap."


End file.
